Strangers
by Rogue 559
Summary: Complete. Brennan and Emma have made a decision...
1. chapter 1

Well here it is, the first chapter of my new fan fic. Its set before Brennan and Emma joined the team, and its a different version of the first two episodes of the show. There should be an update every couple of days as I've already written most of it. If anyone has any ideas about an ending etc. they are always appreciated.   
  
Enjoy and then review, please otherwise I'll get really bored. I'm happiest when receiving loads of attention...  
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
'Jesse, behind...' Shalimar's voice cut out as the GSAgent slammed his fist into the back of Jesse's skull. Jesse fell to the ground and Shalimar rushed forward, with every intention of beating the agent to a pulp. She was held back however by the two agents behind her. They each grabbed an arm. She pushed her feet off the ground and flipped herself backwards with ease. When her feet touched down she kicked at the back of the first agents knee, forcing him to kneel and let go of her arm. She spun round and elbowed the second agent in the head. He also let go and she brought her leg up, knocking him unconscious. The first agents head made contact with her knee and he suffered the same fate as his partner. By that time Jesse had finished with his agent, having slammed his slightly harder fist into the guys skull.  
  
'They're definitely getting worse,' Shalimar pointed out as they walked back to the car.   
  
'Yeah, I mean we only came out for a decent cup of coffee.'  
  
'I know, they just don't know when to quit.'  
  
They shared a smile as Jesse dug the car keys out of his pocket.  
  
Ten minutes before, the pair had been walking out of Starbucks when Shalimar had spotted three slightly suspicious guys across the street, all of them decked out in the usual GSA gear. They had continued walking, Jesse hoping that it was just some kind of surveillance operation and that Genomex simply wanted to know what kind of coffee the Mutant X team liked, Shalimar restless for a fight, knowing it wouldn't be too hard to beat them.   
  
And five minutes later they were all locked in a fierce battle down a side street, in amongst the garbage cans.  
  
'They're so predictable,' Shalimar stated. She was so bored with fighting the dregs of the Genomex organisation. Just for once she wished they would be a little more spontaneous, impetuous, a little more like her.   
  
'You would think they would have learnt by now. They're gonna need more than three guys to take us out,' Jesse replied.  
  
He slipped the key into the ignition and felt the familiar rumbling as the car came to life.  
  
Shalimar's brow furrowed. There was definitely something odd about the whole morning. Why the GSA had been sent after them in the first place was a mystery. This attack had been completely random, there was no ongoing case, nothing that linked Mutant X to Genomex except the whole mortal enemy thing. Usually the GSA's attacks were random but they usually came in the midst of a crisis. The Mutant X team going to Starbucks to get a tall cappuccino and a grande chocolate cream frappucino, no whip was not what Shalimar would term as a crisis.  
  
  
  
Her eyes glowed in their sockets as she sniffed at the air. Something was definitely off.   
  
'Jesse.'  
  
'Yeah,' he said as he looked over at her. 'What?' he said with more urgency as he saw her eyes.  
  
'Can you smell that?'  
  
'No, but then I'm not feral Shal.'  
  
'Get out of the car,' she said as she yanked on her door handle and pushed open her door. She stepped out onto the street and looked across to make sure that Jesse had done the same. With a signal from her they both started walking down the road, Shalimar keeping an eye out for any activity when they were thrown to the ground by the explosion.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar opened her eyes and turned back towards the burning wreck of a car they had been lucky enough to escape. Flames licked at the ground around it and glass was everywhere. As she stood up she heard the light tinkle as shards of it fell from her clothes to the floor below.  
  
'You okay?' Jesse asked. He looked across at Shalimar. She looked pretty much unscathed, a mixture of anger and confusion on her face. Atleast now they both knew what the pointless fight had been for.   
  
'I withdraw the whole 'predictable' comment.'  
  
***  
  
'Adam. Why are you not more concerned about the fact that we almost got killed?' Shalimar asked, irritated at Adam's normal, calm demeanor.  
  
'I am concerned,' he replied distractedly.   
  
'Yeah, we can tell,' she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She looked over at Jesse and rolled her eyes. He smirked back at her and leant back on the bed. As soon as the pair had reached Sanctuary they had gone to Adam to get checked out and to find out what exactly the GSA was doing, other than trying to blow them up.   
  
'So, how am I doing?' asked Jesse. Shalimar had already been checked out and other than a couple of scratches there was nothing wrong with her. Jesse had an already dark purple bruise along his right arm where he had landed.   
  
'You seem to be fine, no permanent damage.' He carried on before Shalimar could ask. 'And no, I haven't found any solid reason as to why they decided to blow you two up today of all days. It was probably just that they were trying to kill you both which is not all that unusual for the GSA but I'll keep on looking and I think you two should get some rest.' He looked at Shalimar. She smiled in reply, clearly not too psychologically damaged by the events of the day.   
  
She turned and walked out of the lab. Her head was pounding and her neck was aching. She had landed hard and it was gonna take a while for her muscles and bones to recover. But she was more angry than anything. Angry at the GSA for trying to blow them up, angry at herself for not having seen it coming. And she was tired. It was midday and Shalimar usually required some kind of cat nap at about that time unless she was working.   
  
She wandered along the hall of Sanctuary towards her bedroom and slid open the door to reveal what could only be called a mess. She waded her way through the carpet of clothes she had created for herself and dropped onto the bed. She felt her eyelids closing gradually and gave herself up to the sleep that she so desperately wanted. She had been up half the night prowling through the local environment. It was a feral thing and although she didn't mind occasionally having her nocturnal habits surface for a couple of nights a month it wore her out when she had to get up early in the morning. That morning had been an exception, as the team had no mission to deal with. Her and Jesse had decided to go out for coffee, walk around for a bit, doing the normal Sunday morning thing. She hadn't expected a fight.  
  
Jesse sat in front of the computer. He, unlike Shalimar had gotten a great nights sleep. He had heard her leave at eleven pm and had fallen asleep before she had come back which he assumed had been just a couple of hours before they had both left Sanctuary.  
  
It had become a sort of ritual for them. Every Sunday morning, possibly in an attempt to gain some sense of normality, he and Shalimar would go out in one of the cars for breakfast. They would go into town and would then proceed to make their way to the nearest coffee shop where they would sit and read the papers. It was, they assumed what normal people, and by normal they meant people who didn't save the world as their day job. It gave them a much needed opportunity to relax and wind down from what was usually a busy week.   
  
Jesse looked through some of Adam's files. He knew that the older man had been looking for some new members of the team for a while now. The GSA was becoming more of an everyday part of their lives and it was taking all the teams time just to try and get a couple of new mutants into the underground. They needed some help and new mutant recruits were the only way to do that. Adam had cut the list down to five psionics and six elementals. He was even talking about holding some kind of interview session for all of them so the potentials could meet the team and the team could judge the potentials. Jesse wasn't sure about the second part of Adam's plan but he liked the idea of having some new people on the team. Jesse still had his shy moments but he had successfully gotten over any bashfulness he had suffered when he had first been picked up by Shalimar and Adam. It was mainly Shalimar's influence. She had forcefully removed him from the lab and the computers and had then dared him to so much as think of going back in there. Despite her slightly aggressive methods though she was good for him and everyone had noticed the change in his disposition. He had always been polite but never asserted himself, never stuck up for himself unless he was pushed into a corner. He liked the change. 


	2. chapter 2

Here is the second installment of this fiction. Glad to hear some of you enjoyed the first. As I said last chapter I have written most of the story so updates should be coming pretty close to each other...however I have reached the part of the story where I kind of have to get to a point and I've just realised that the story does not have a plot as such...Very odd discovery...  
  
I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Emma looked up as a blonde woman walked into the shop. She had been working since nine that morning and her feet were killing her.   
  
'You okay?' her boss, Charlie asked as she walked by on her way to her office.  
  
'Yeah,' Emma replied. 'Note to self: never wear these shoes to work again.'  
  
Charlie laughed as she carried on. She was prepared to buy Emma as many pairs of comfortable shoes as Emma wanted, providing she carried on working at the store. Sales figures had increased three fold since Emma had been hired. Charlie had no idea how Emma did it but she was one that Charlie wanted to hang on to.   
  
Shalimar looked across at the sales girl behind the counter. Her face looked familiar but Shalimar did shop a lot. She walked through the racks of clothes, occasionally halting in her progress to pick a hanger off a rail, or run her fingers across the material. She made her way to the back of the shop where the shoes were kept. She picked up a pair of boots and sat down to try them on.  
  
'Can I help you?' came a disembodied voice from above. Shalimar looked across the floor to a pair of feet and gradually drew her eyes up till they reached a face. She looked straight into the eyes of the familiar sales girl. Shalimar smiled as she said no. She turned back to the task at hand and Emma walked away, happy that she didn't have to go to the storeroom to find one pair of shoes in amongst the piles of boxes. She would work her magic when it was really required.   
  
Shalimar stood up and looked into the mirror. As she did so she noticed two guys in suits standing at the other end of the shop. They were tall and intimidating...or atleast looked like they were trying to be. They looked completely out of place among the silks and satins and beads and looked away quickly as they noticed her staring at them.   
  
She sat down once more and removed the boots. She replaced them with her own and lifted her hand to her mouth.  
  
'Adam, Jesse,' she said quietly. She didn't want to draw too much attention to herself but, if the two men were who she thought they were she was going to need some kind of backup. She was not prepared to wait until her car was blown up to see if they were GSAgents.   
  
'Yeah,' came Jesse's reply eventually.  
  
'I got two agents on my tail,' she replied.  
  
'They're chasing you?'  
  
'No, but once I leave this shop running they probably will be.'  
  
***  
  
Emma looked at her watch. It was 3.15 and she had plans that night so wanted to get off early. She looked across at the two guys in suits. They weren't the kind of clientele the store usually got but she figured they were buying for their girlfriends. She walked over to the footwear section, wanting to see if the blonde had made a decision about the boots or if she needed a little more convincing.   
  
She walked around the corner and saw the woman crouched on the floor behind a huge rack of coats. Her brow furrowed as she heard the woman whispering something. It sounded like she was having a conversation but there was no one else there.   
  
Shalimar heard Emma walk up behind her but she didn't have the time to turn around and try and explain her actions. She had to work out a way of getting out of the building without the GSAgents seeing her. She had already had enough action that week without having to deal with them again, in the middle of a crowded mall no less.   
  
'Are you okay ma'am?' Emma asked quietly. She wasn't sure what to think of the situation. She might have a crazy person on her hands in which case she really didn't want to get too close, but the feelings she was getting off of her at sporadic intervals were urgent, desperate and slightly scared.   
  
'I think I'll be fine,' Shalimar whispered as she turned around to face Emma. Her eyes held an unspoken warning to the girl not to make any sign that she was there.   
  
The GSAgents, clearly bored with playing the waiting game started moving through the shop, occasionally knocking hangars off racks with their burly frames, not caring about the clatter of the plastic hitting the floor or the mess they were leaving in their wake.   
  
'They're coming,' Emma said as she crouched down beside Shalimar.   
  
'What?' Shalimar replied, her eyebrows raised.   
  
'The people you're hiding from.' Their eyes met and they silently reached an understanding. Without saying a word Emma stood up and walked towards the two men.   
  
'Hi, is there anything I can help you gentlemen with?' she asked in her most polite, sales assistant voice. They looked at her like she was a completely bizarre new breed of person.   
  
On hearing Emma's voice Shalimar crawled around the coats and along the floor till she reached the cash registers. She then stood up and, trying to be as inconspicuous as she could walked out of the shop, wincing everytime her heels clicked on the floor. She reached the entrance to the store and allowed herself to breath a little more freely. She could still hear the redhead yammering away to the uncaring agents, telling them how they absolutely had to have a pair of thigh high boots and how they could team them with a miniskirt and a funky tee shirt and they would be admired by everybody. She could practically picture the looks on their faces as they tried to comprehend why someone would be telling them that kind of stuff.   
  
'Hey,' she heard the girls voice ring out from behind her and knew that the game was up. She heard footsteps and realised the only option she had was running, she certainly didn't want to risk being seen taking down two guys and risking her anonymity.   
  
She took off in the vague direction of the outside world. She didn't want to go back to the car having already given it up for lost. She was not prepared to get blown up just because she couldn't find a quiet place with no other people around in which to beat the two agents to a pulp.   
  
She could feel the blood pumping through her veins and the air rushing in and out of her lungs as she ran through the crowds of pre-Christmas shoppers. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw that she hadn't lost the agents yet. She spurted onwards, using her feral abilities to try and outrun them. She turned down a side row of shops. She knew the mall like the back of her hand and knew that this way would lead her to the back of the huge building and she could then call for Jesse and Adam to pick her up. But before she got a chance to get back up to speed she smacked into someone. They both flew backwards and landed on the floor hard. Shalimar stood up quickly, trying to get the breath that had been knocked out of her back into her lungs so she could start running again. She looked at the guy she had knocked over and the breath left her body all over again. He was hot, brutally so. Tall, athletic build, dark brown eyes and even darker hair. She shook her head to try and regain her focus. She had to get out of there before the agents were right on top of her.   
  
Brennan looked up at the woman who had knocked him down. He raised his eyebrows as the corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. She was gorgeous. Her blonde hair framed her face and her chest rose and fell with each breath. He pushed himself off the floor to stand in front of her but she made to skirt round him. He stepped into her path again.  
  
'You're not leaving are you?' he asked.  
  
Shalimar smiled wryly. Of course he was trying to flirt with her, that was all guys ever did with her: flirt and fight. She didn't mind the flirting part but she just wished there were more guys in the world like Jesse. He was nice, and had never attempted to get her into bed which was always appreciated.   
  
'I have to,' she replied as she moved to dodge him the other way. But he sidestepped into her way again. She looked up at him, the anger and urgency building within her.   
  
'Would you please move.'  
  
Brennan looked down at her. She was atleast a head shorter than him but didn't seem to be intimidated in the slightest. In fact she looked positively pissed off already. He raised his eyebrows wanting to see how far he could push his luck but she turned around too quickly for the motion to have full effect. He saw two burly guys running around the corner and then the blonde shot off past him. The first guy past shoved Brennan out of the way and he slammed into the wall. He looked on, curiosity filling his mind before taking off after the group. 


	3. chapter 3

The third installment is up. Thanks for all the reviews. And they were some really long ones this time round...I love those kind.   
  
I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as possible but my Christmas ball is tomorrow so I won't be able to do any writing on Friday due to the heinous hang over I'll probably have.   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
Jesse watched on the screen in front of him as the dot that represented Shalimar moved along the floor of the mall. She was moving fast and he sped up the Helix so he could get there in time to pick her up. He knew that she didn't want to have to fight out in the open. After the years of anonymity Mutant X had maintained it seemed a shame to stop now.   
  
He looked out of the windscreen and saw in the distance the dim shape of the huge mall drawing nearer, growing larger. He descended so he could look for a parking space for the Helix.   
  
'Adam,' he said into his comring. 'You got anywhere for me to park?'  
  
'You're gonna have to land the Helix behind that hill.' Jesse squinted as he saw the hill Adam was referring to. It was at the back of the shopping centre. 'There's nothing behind there, just some fields,' Adams voice continued.   
  
'Alright. You wanna let Shal know that she's gonna have to run up a hill before she can get out of here or should I?' Jesse asked.   
  
'I'll let you have that particular honour,' Adam replied. He really didn't want to be the one who had to tell Shalimar that she was gonna have to run a little further.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar felt the blood pumping through her veins. She was getting tired but couldn't stop until she had found a secluded area of the mall in which to beat the crap out of the GSAgents who were still, despite her best efforts on her tail or until she found the Helix. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the guy she had slammed into racing after her and the agents. Her brow furrowed but she carried on running.   
  
She looked to her right and saw the bathrooms. She made a quick turn and slammed open the door. She knew the agents would have no qualms about going into the ladies room but she atleast hoped that there was no one in there to see her. She looked around her and saw a mother and her daughter. The little girl was washing her hands, her mother waiting for her to finish. She looked up as Shalimar entered the room.   
  
'You have to leave,' Shalimar said loudly, hoping that if there was anyone in one of the cubicles they would hear her warning too.  
  
'What?' the woman asked, confusion and indignation emanating from her.   
  
'Get out, now!' Shalimar replied a little more firmly. Patience never had been one of her virtues.   
  
'Come on sweetie, dry your hands quickly,' the woman said to her daughter. The little girl looked at Shalimar with large brown eyes, her stare penetrating in a way that only children could be.   
  
Shalimar looked across at the door as it smashed against the wall, the plaster of the wall cracking on contact. The two GSAgents ran in but stopped as soon as they saw that there was more than one person in the room. Shalimar smirked as she realised the kind of surreal world she had just entered. It was like a standoff, neither the agents nor her wanting to move. They both knew the consequences of attacking each other in public.  
  
The woman, scared for herself and her child hurried out of the room.   
  
Both Shalimar and the agents stared at the door until it closed and then everything sped up. Shalimar kicked at the first agent and followed it up with a punch to the jaw. She jumped onto the counter around the washbasins and jumped again as the second agent pulled out a taser and swung it at her feet. She jumped to the ground and dropped to a crouched position, swinging her leg round to take the agents legs from beneath him. He landed on top of the fallen first agent and lay there, unmoving.   
  
Shalimar reached into her pocket and pulled out a tube of lipgloss. She leant one hand on the counter and swept the stick over her lips. She stuck the tube back into her pocket and stepped over the two agents to reach the door. She pulled it open and walked out into the mall.  
  
Brennan looked up as he saw the woman exit the bathroom. He had fallen behind in the chase, had lost the group and had been looking for them, wanting to help.  
  
He watched as the blonde walked in the opposite direction to him, towards one of the many exits. He strode across to the bathroom and swung the door open gently, wondering where the guys he had been following were. He practically tripped over them as he walked into the room. Brennan looked around him, surveying the damage, mouth and eyes wide.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar walked out into the cool air. After the excitement of that morning she was hot under her leather jacket and she slid it off. She felt the light breeze hit her skin and she brushed away the strands of hair that had been whipped across her face. She looked around her for any sign of Jesse or the Helix but all she could see were cars, stretching in front of her. She folded her jacket over her arm and started walking forwards into the field of vehicles.   
  
'Shalimar,' came Jesse's voice over her comlink.   
  
'Yeah?'   
  
'You see the big hill in front of you?'  
  
'Yeah,' Shalimar replied cautiously.   
  
'Well, if you walk over it you'll see me.'  
  
'Jesse, why the hell did you park the Helix miles away from where I actually am? Are you in some way mentally deficient?'  
  
'Just walk over the damn hill,' he said before cutting the connection. He knew she was pissed but she could vent her anger when she reached him.  
  
Shalimar sighed. She had not only had to run from two GSAgents who wanted to kill her but now she had to walk to her ride. And the worst part was she could see her car from where she was standing. She gazed at it longingly. She definitely didn't want to lose the vehicle but chances were that the agents had been a distraction and somebody had been screwing around with her car in the meantime. She was not risking her life for a car, no matter how much she didn't want to walk.  
  
'Hey.'  
  
She spun around and saw the tall, dark, handsome guy she had slammed into jogging towards her. She breathed deeply, reminding herself not to jump on him as soon as he got close.   
  
'Hey,' he repeated.  
  
'You said that already,' she replied, a smirk drifting across her face. Her mind, having successfully gotten over the idea that this guy standing in front of her was gorgeous had now moved on to how much he knew about what had happened. She hadn't seen him as she had come out of the bathrooms but that didn't mean he hadn't put two and two together. She knew Adam would be pissed at her. He was always enforcing the idea that anonymity was the best defense, and she knew he was right but things weren't always that simple.  
  
'Not meaning to be rude but what do you want?' she asked. She didn't want to blow the guy off, it was the furthest thing from her mind but she was pretty sure that where two GSAgents were there would be more and the guys in the bathroom weren't gonna stay unconscious forever.   
  
Brennan wasn't quite sure what to say. He didn't want to just come out with what was really on his mind: So, how did you take down two guys both double your size without so much as breaking a sweat? He didn't think that would go across too well.   
  
He looked into her eyes and saw her patience wearing thin. She clearly had someplace else to be.   
  
'Who are you?' He wasn't sure how the question had formed but it had and before he had a chance to so much as think about it it had slipped out of his mouth.   
  
Shalimar looked up at him, trying to work out whether or not he meant it in the name, number, wanna date kinda way or the 'are you some kind of strange freak with a very secret identity' kinda way.   
  
'Shalimar Fox,' she replied, deciding to go with the former option.   
  
'Brennan Mulwray,' he replied, taking her hand in his and shaking it. They both maintained eye contact, feeling the sexual tension building between them. She hadn't understood his meaning but he was happy enough knowing her name. He smiled as the hand shake went on...and on. Neither of them seemed to want to let go, both wanting to maintain the contact for as long as possible.   
  
'Shalimar.' Her eyes widened and she glanced down to her hand.  
  
'Um, your ring appears to be talking to you,' Brennan said. He had noticed the shock in her eyes and knew she probably didn't want to talk about it but he was nothing if not bold.  
  
'Yeah,' Shalimar replied, nodding her head and pulling her hand from his grasp. She had to get out of the car park, she had wasted too much time and this point had been hammered home by Jesse's voice and the two figures who had just appeared in the window of the second floor of the mall. They turned and she knew she had only a few minutes head start.   
  
Her mind rapidly moved from one option to the next. She could either leave him here and take off as fast as she could for the Helix. But the agents had already seen her talking to him and they would probably take that as some kind of sign that he was a new mutant. She couldn't leave him to suffer that kind of fate. So that left her with two options. She could tell him to run and hide somewhere...but he didn't seem like the type. Or she could take him with her. That would get him out of the way of the GSA and she could then drop him off somewhere. Admittedly he himself could work for the GSA but she was going to go with her instincts on this one.   
  
'This may sound a little strange but we need to get out of here.'  
  
'Well, considering that the first time I saw you you were running from two guys in suits and you then proceeded to kick their asses in a bathroom, no not really,' Brennan replied.   
  
Shalimar smirked. 'So you coming?'  
  
'After you.' 


	4. chapter 4

Aren't you all impressed that I'm managing to update so quickly? Quite the achievement for someone who thinks deadlines are there to tell me when to start working.   
  
I'm glad to hear that you are all enjoying this story. And I'm loving the really long reviews...always a good thing. Any criticisms are appreciated as well. I do, like any writer worth their salt (I've never understood that expression) I am always wanting to improve. So please review this chapter too (Victoria: I'm sorry if you think Upside Down wasn't finished. It is, atleast until I can be bothered to write a sequel...I just kind of felt like I had to stop doing that one for a bit to get some perspective on it and try and come up with a new angle. Glad to hear that you want a sequel...I will try and write one soon).   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
Jesse saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up, through the windscreen of the Helix. He saw Shalimar jogging towards the ship but his attention was more taken up by the guy she was with. He rolled his eyes and opened the door as the pair got to it.   
  
Brennan looked at the inside of the plane. He had never seen anything like it. And he had never imagined his life could get any stranger, but it successfully had. He looked around him, at the screens and the flashing lights. It looked like a set from Star Trek.  
  
'You wanna take a seat?' Shalimar said from behind him. She smiled at him trying to reassure him that he hadn't just entered a science fiction film. Though that wouldn't be so far from the truth she thought to herself wryly.   
  
'Adam's gonna go nuts,' Jesse said as Shalimar sat down in the seat next to his.   
  
'Thank you for pointing that out Jesse. You're a real help,' she bit back.  
  
'Why did you bring him along anyway?' Jesse said in little over a whisper.   
  
'The two agents chasing me saw me talking to him. They would have assumed that he was a new mutant too. I couldn't risk leaving him behind.'  
  
'How do we know he isn't a new mutant?'  
  
'We don't.'  
  
'How do we know he isn't an agent, one that we're about to take back to Sanctuary?'  
  
'We don't. That's why Adam invented the visual cloaks.' She stood up and walked into the belly of the ship. She reached over to a drawer that was set into the wall and pulled it out revealing a tray of small circles. She pulled one out and walked over to Brennan.  
  
'How you doing?' she asked, knowing it had to be a shock finding himself in a futuristic vehicle on the way to her house, which just happened to be in a big rock.  
  
'I'm okay.' Brennan was taking it all in his stride. He knew he didn't come from a normal background and he was no longer going through that uncertain stage with his powers. He had been using them for some time and it no longer seemed bizarre that he was able to conjure electricity in his hands. It had helped him out of quite a few situations. He was happy that he was a little different from most people and he guessed that this was all just a part of that.   
  
'I'm gonna have to put this on you, security reasons.'  
  
'Okay.'  
  
Shalimar brushed his hair away from the his temple and gently placed the cloak on to the skin. She looked at his face and saw a frown appear as he opened his eyes and saw nothing. She had been freaked out when Adam had placed the cloak on her when he had brought her to Sanctuary for the first time. Not being able to see had been a weird experience but she had remembered not being scared. Her other senses were heightened, it was like being forced into the kind of situation had made her react, and she had pretty good instincts as far as people were concerned, she trusted Adam even though she had only known him for a couple of minutes. She felt completely safe with him, totally at ease. She saw Brennan's hand tighten around the arm of his chair.   
  
'You alright?' she asked quietly, placing her hand on his arm and squeezing to try and reassure him that everything was going to be okay.  
  
'I'm good, its just a little weird,' he replied.  
  
'And you thought things couldn't get any stranger.'  
  
***  
  
Emma shut the door behind her and walked out into the street. She felt the cold air hit her cheeks and enclosed her jacket tighter around her body. She wrapped her scarf around her neck and pulled her gloves on and walked down the road. She looked up and saw the almost orange clouds overhead, tinted by the lights of the city. She remembered going to visit her grandparents every Christmas. They lived in the country and every Christmas eve she would sit out in their garden looking up at the stars, just waiting for Santa Clause to come by on his sleigh and land on her roof. She would wait there for hours, wrapped up in a big blanket that smelt of mothballs. Her grandmother would bring her big mugs of steaming hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and marshmallows floating in the liquid.   
  
Life had been so simple back then. Not that she didn't love her current existence. She had friends, a job that although not fulfilling any dreams gave her the ability to live a comfortable life. But living with the knowledge that she was so different from everyone else was difficult. Knowing that at any moment someone could find out how much of a freak she really was. That thought terrified her.   
  
She walked round the corner at the end of the street and straight into the bar she had agreed to meet her friends at. She hadn't been out in a while and was fully looking forward to it. After surveying the room for her friends she sat down on one of the red plush bar stools and ordered a screwdriver. She watched as the barman got her drink together. He was hot and Emma smiled when he handed her the glass, moisture sliding down the outside.  
  
She looked around her. The bar was a regular haunt of hers, mostly because she loved the atmosphere. The lights were soft and warm and the seats were comfortable, and it was a little old fashioned, with some old school soul music playing on a stereo behind the counter.   
  
She sat back in the chair to wait for her friends to turn up. A couple of seconds later though she was bent almost double, her elbow resting heavily on the bar, the respective hand holding her head as she was assaulted with images and emotions. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip till her teeth left a red mark as she waited for the moment to pass.   
  
Eventually it did and she looked up to see the bartender looking at her like she was a freak who had just managed to escape from a mental institution. She rolled her eyes as if to say 'hard day' and turned back to her drink. That kind of thing happened occasionally. She would just be carrying on with her normal life, doing normal everyday things and then suddenly she would be attacked by thoughts and images and emotions that weren't her own. It had freaked her out but now it was just annoying. And the occasional trips through other peoples minds were becoming more frequent. She understood that it was her ability and that she should see it as a gift but it was hard, especially when she was trying to look all hot and mysterious in front of a cute stranger.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar poured the boiling water into a mug and stirred till she couldn't see anymore coffee granules. She walked to the fridge and pulled it open feeling the cool air against her skin. She quickly drew out the milk and closed the door with her hip as she walked back to the table. Brennan was currently having everything explained to him by Adam and Jesse, Adam doing what he did best and baffling everyone with science and Jesse trying to fill in the blanks in a way that wouldn't seem too patronizing. Shalimar had decided that Brennan probably needed a hot drink and she needed some food. She was also mentally preparing herself for Adam's inevitable lecture on why she couldn't bring people back to Sanctuary with her just because she was feeling protective.   
  
She pulled the pizza out of the oven and slid it onto a plate and cut it up for easy eating. Leaning back against the table she closed her eyes, allowing herself a few moments to savour the peace and quiet of the end of the day. She didn't mind working, and atleast it was work that she wanted to do as opposed to working in a bar for next to nothing. She had gained nothing from education, especially considering that her father had placed her in a mental institution when she was twelve. Everything she knew, about computers, maths, science, all of that was knowledge that she had gleaned from Adam. If she hadn't have met him who knows where she would have ended up.   
  
'We need to talk.'  
  
The pizza in Shalimar's hand stopped inches from her mouth and she rolled her eyes.   
  
'What about?' She said brightly. She decided to try the butter wouldn't melt tack. He looked at her and in that instant she knew for sure that it was not going to work.   
  
'I know Adam, okay. I know I shouldn't have brought Brennan back to Sanctuary. It was a bad idea, but I couldn't just leave him behind to get his ass kicked by the GSA because they were under the impression that I only talk to new mutants. And before you say anything I did not do it because of the 'protective feral thing', I did it because it is just good manners to save someone from getting the crap beaten out of them.'  
  
Adam looked at the blonde. He knew there were so many problems with her argument but he couldn't fault her for trying. And right at that moment there was really only one thing to say.  
  
'He's a new mutant.' 


	5. chapter 5

'Another update just days after the last one...no way' I hear you all cry. But 'Way'. And here it is. I have updated so quickly that my head is doing an exorcist spin...crazy fun. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.   
  
As ever, thank you to my faithful reviewers. (Love Conquers: you're a doll for reviewing this but I'm gonna need an e-mail address to review House of Dreams, which I totally have to do. I would try and explain the complicated workings of my computer but its impossible. It won't let me open new windows so I can't review anybody's fictions unless I have an e-mail address. Basically its screwed up. If you don't wanna give me your e-mail then let me just say here and now with regards to your story...Wow!)  
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
'I can't believe you actually did that,' Emma laughed. Her friends had shown up mere minutes after the episode with all the pain and since then she had been having a great time. Not seeing her friends in a long while meant they had so much more to talk about and they hadn't been lost for words for an hour and a half.   
  
She stood up and walked over to the bar, swaying slightly as she moved. She knew she should probably be going home soon, she had work early tomorrow but she was having way too much fun. Her life had become so full of stress recently and she had needed the opportunity to calm down, chill out, unwind, whatever term you wanted to use. She had needed space to breathe. And being given that space had lifted the tension from her shoulders.   
  
'Screwdriver, please,' she requested as the barman walked over to her.  
  
'Coming up,' he replied. She smiled in return as he walked away to get her drink but it quickly turned to a frown. She was getting weird vibes off the guy. Earlier, when she had received the flash from someone she had figured that it was just another one of the random ones but now, in retrospect it had been different. It had been like it had happened for a purpose, like she was supposed to get the flash, the connection was meant to happen. Emma had never believed wholeheartedly in fate and destiny but if things were gonna happen for a reason then she was pretty sure she should pay attention and do something about it.   
  
She looked up at the bartender. He had his cellphone held up to his ear and was muttering something into it, something she couldn't quite make out. He looked edgy and it was then that she decided now was definitely the time to be leaving. She walked back to the table her friends were congregated around and made her excuses. She picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder. She looked across at the bartender as she walked out and noticed him watching her. She carried on moving through the bar to the front door and made her way out into the night. It had been raining slightly and she dodged the most major puddles as she made her way back to her apartment.   
  
***  
  
She waited after knocking on the door, with bated breath as she heard sounds from within the room. After talking it all over with Adam Shalimar had decided she needed to talk to Brennan. Adam had checked Brennan out on the new mutant database after vaguely recognizing him but without Brennan's knowledge. Nobody knew if he was aware of the fact that he was so different and Shalimar had been elected (reluctantly) to talk to him about it.   
  
Her head shot up as the door opened. She looked at the figure in the doorway and her breath instantly drew into her chest. Adam had given Brennan the spare room for the night and Brennan was clearly settling in. His jeans were hanging low on his hips, his t-shirt had ridden up slightly, revealing some pretty solid abs.   
  
'Hi,' he said.   
  
'Hi,' Shalimar replied with a smile.   
  
'I was just gonna take a shower.'  
  
'I think we need to talk before that,' Shalimar said.  
  
Brennan looked at her face and realized that they probably did. He wasn't sure how much, if anything she knew. The equipment in the few rooms he had already been in was pretty hot, and he figured anybody who lived in a place like this had to know something.   
  
He turned back into the room and Shalimar walked in behind him, closing the door behind her. Brennan sat on the bed and watched as Shalimar attempted to look for a seat. There weren't any chairs so she, somewhat reluctantly sat down on the edge of the bed.   
  
'Is something wrong?' Brennan asked. She seemed awkward, less at ease than she had been earlier. And considering that earlier she was being chased by two pretty hefty looking guys that was strange. But Brennan was learning to deal with everything that was weird and wonderful. He had always lived in a bizarre world what with his powers and he had heard of Mutant X which is why it hadn't been so much of a suprise when Adam and Jesse had explained it all to him. But he was currently in a room in a mountain.   
  
'You know, don't you?' Shalimar asked. She had been checking out his behaviour all day. Jesse and Adam liked to think that she was sentimental and protective and that she didn't think about the consequences of her actions. But she wasn't as short sighted as they thought. She had been watching Brennan's reactions and he didn't seem all that freaked by everything that had happened. It was like it was part of his everyday life; dodging forces other than the law, accepting things no matter what kind of situation he was in. Only new mutants learnt how to deal with things like that by the time they were in their mid twenties.   
  
'Yes,' Brennan said after a long pause. He figured he could trust Shalimar. She seemed like a good person.   
  
'What kind?'  
  
'You don't know already?'  
  
'Yes, but I'd rather hear it from you.'  
  
Brennan answered by raising his hand and causing the palm to be filled with glinting blue light. Shalimar watched on. She had seen electrical elementals before but he had a certain amount of control over his power that she hadn't seen before, even among the GSAgents who had been trained in that kind of thing.   
  
'You impressed?' he asked.   
  
'Nope,' she replied with a laugh. He smiled back at her.   
  
***  
  
Emma bolted the door behind her and walked through the apartment to reach the living room. She shed her outdoor clothes on the way and sat down on the couch. It wasn't till then that she realised she was shaking. She knew someone would be climbing the stairs to her front door any minute. The guy in the bar hadn't just been talking to the supplier of his beer. She was scared, for herself, for her friends. She was even scared for her family. She never saw her parents, didn't have any brothers or sisters and most of the rest of her family were dead but she had a feeling that if there were any surviving relatives out there the people that were looking for her would go looking for them too.   
  
She stood up and walked through the kitchen to reach her bedroom, switching the kettle on as she did. She pulled a bag from underneath her bed and proceeded to fill it with her most vital items of clothing. She grabbed her purse from her handbag along with her cellphone and lip gloss. That was quality gloss and she was not leaving it behind, no matter who was chasing her. She shoved them into one of the pockets of the backpack and zipped it up.   
  
The steam brushed against her face right before it floated into the atmosphere and disappeared. She stirred the spoon around the inside of the cup and watched as the clear boiling water became gradually darker and darker.   
  
She didn't know where she was going to go. She was running, of course but where to? It occurred to her that she hadn't really thought this plan through. She had waited till the last possible moment and now it was too late to plan anything, to prepare anywhere for her to stay. She had been in the same place for too long and the people that were chasing her had caught up. And now she had nowhere to turn. 


	6. chapter 6

And I'm updating on Christmas eve now...who else is impressed? This is a super long chapter because I won't be updating tomorrow or the day after that and probably not the day after that either. The joys of family Christmas's, especially divorced ones...I get two Christmas days.   
  
I hope you all enjoy this update. Thank you to all my reviewers. You are all extremely cool. And to everybody who is reading this...why haven't you reviewed already?  
  
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  
  
***  
  
'Shalimar,' came Adam's voice over the comlink.  
  
She looked up from the book she had been reading in bed. It was late and it had been a long day but she couldn't seem to get to sleep. She had been trying to lull herself into the world of the unconscious.   
  
'Yeah,' she said quietly, seriously hoping that it wasn't anything major.  
  
'I need you in the lab.'  
  
She sighed deeply and closed the book. She got out of the bed leaning on everything heavily, aware that if she didn't she'd probably fall over from exhaustion.  
  
She eventually made her way to the lab, opening the door by walking into it with her shoulder. She looked around her as she saw everyone gathered there already. Her hand automatically raised itself to her head and she pulled her hair out of the messy braid it had been in. She shook it out quickly, trying to make herself look natural in front of the group, especially Brennan. She walked over to the bed in the middle of the room and hauled herself onto it.   
  
'You alright there Shal?' Jesse asked, a smirk playing on his lips.   
  
'Its 1 in the morning, don't make me hurt you,' she bit back.   
  
Jesse turned in his chair to face the computer monitor he had been working at. He knew Shalimar's moods like he knew the back of his hand. And he had been in Sanctuary long enough to know that when Shalimar was tired she could be worse than Atilla the Hun.   
  
'What's up Adam?' Shalimar asked sleepily.  
  
'Something just came up on the continuous scan we have running on the Genomex computer system.' It was Adam's current baby. Jesse and he had worked on it for a couple of weeks and had finally managed to hack their way into the Genomex system a couple of days earlier. They had set a scan running on everything going on in there; every memo went to the recipient via Mutant X, everytime someone logged out it was recorded on the Sanctuary computers. They knew everything the GSA knew.   
  
'A man called Damien Whyler called in a report that a new mutant has turned up.'  
  
'Who's the new mutant?' Shalimar asked.   
  
'A woman called Emma DeLauro. She's a psionic,' Adam answered as Jesse drew up a picture of her. She was pretty; brunette, light blue eyes, fair skin. Shalimar frowned. She recognized the woman but she couldn't remember where from. It had been recent she knew that much.  
  
'So we looked into all the files that had anything to do with Emma DeLauro,' continued Jesse. 'Apparently she was sighted earlier today and the GSA were going to take her out but were told to go after the real target.'  
  
'Where was she spotted?'  
  
'The same mall that you were at.'  
  
Suddenly it all came flooding back to Shalimar. She remembered exactly where she had seen Emma. She had been the sales assistant who had helped her escape. She lay back on the bed, too tired to deal with a storyline that wouldn't have been out of place in a sci-fi movie.   
  
'I was the real target,' she said quietly to herself.  
  
'Yes,' Adam replied.   
  
Brennan watched as the team did what they clearly did best; found a problem that needed solving and dealt with it the best way they knew how. He realized that so far he hadn't seen the whole Mutant X thing, he assumed Shalimar didn't normally sleep on the job, but so far he was impressed. He had never really had close friends, ones that he would have worked with so succinctly under pressure. The three people in front of him knew each others ways, they knew the quirks and the attitudes of the others. It was something he had always, to some extent wanted in his own life, that feeling of knowing other people, and not just the superficial stuff either. He realized that that was what he wanted out of life, to know someone, just one person better than he knew himself.   
  
'So what's the plan?' Shalimar asked from where she was lying, her eyes closed, her breathing gradually becoming deeper and slower and calmer.   
  
'You and Jesse are going to pick up Emma,' Adam replied without hesitation. He was, at the best of times cautious about sending the team into possibly dangerous situations, but he doubted the GSA would be able to work quite as quickly as Mutant X, and no car went as fast as the Double Helix.   
  
A groan emitted from Shalimar as she was pulled up by Jesse. She glared at him as she made her way back to her room to get changed for the mission.   
  
Brennan was unsure of how to proceed. He felt like he was completely on the outskirts, not a member of the team, but not simply an onlooker either. He watched as Adam checked over the details like Emma's address, her regular haunts, the GSA's current status. He wanted to help find the woman but he wasn't involved enough.   
  
'If you feel up to it, you could go with them,' Adam said, still working away at the computer.  
  
Brennan paused. He wasn't sure. He had never done the team thing before and maybe it was too soon.   
  
'But if you're not ready then you can stay here with me and do some research,' Adam prompted as he turned around to face Brennan, his brown eyes glinting. He was goading Brennan into going. He wanted to test the elemental, see what he could do, see how powerful a new mutant he was. And the only way he could do that was to put him in a fighting situation, force him into the world that Adam had become so accustomed to.   
  
'If you think I wouldn't get in the way,' Brennan replied.   
  
He looked up as Shalimar poked her head round the edge of the lab door.   
  
'We're going now,' she said to Adam with a smile.   
  
'Brennan's going with you.'  
  
Her chocolate brown eyes flicked towards him and she met his gaze head on. She seemed to be sizing him up, making sure that he wouldn't be too much of a liability. As she smiled he knew he had passed the test...so far. He picked his leather jacket up from one of the chairs and walked out of the room after her.   
  
***  
  
'You're not gonna blind me this time?' asked Brennan as the Helix lifted off the floor of the landing bay and hovered for a few seconds before moving forward.   
  
'We checked you out while you were in Sanctuary,' replied Shalimar with a smirk. Brennan raised his eyebrows at her in amused suprise. He had expected to get checked over but not without even knowing it. 'And plus,' Shalimar continued 'I would kick your ass before you got a chance to try anything.' Brennan looked at her and took in the happy smile and the edge behind the eyes which told him she was absolutely serious. She still didn't fully trust him, and with the life that she lived, or what he had seen of it so far he understood. He found it difficult to trust anyone; too many people in the world looking to screw him over.   
  
Shalimar turned her chair around so she could look out of the window. She always found that she enjoyed the journey so much more than the destination. The journey was like Christmas eve. The possibilities, the magic was still there, and you couldn't be quite sure what was gonna happen. Once you got there though you were probably going to get disappointed. She loved Christmas eve just like she loved the journey.   
  
She could feel Brennan's dark brown eyes focused on the back of her head and felt her shoulders tense up a little. Normally she wasn't intimidated by guys but, even though it hadn't happened yet she had the feeling that Brennan would be able to turn her into a giggling school girl within seconds. She could feel the attraction between the two of them and was pretty sure he could too but she didn't want to make any kind of move. For one thing she wasn't sure how he felt about her and she was not planning on risking her dignity and pride on a maybe, and for another she wasn't sure about him period. Despite all the checks run by Adam Brennan Mulwray could turn out to be a psychotic new mutant looking for revenge with the help of the GSA. She had to be certain that Brennan was one of the good guys before she even stopped watching his every move.   
  
Jesse looked across at Shalimar as he switched the Helix onto auto pilot. He could practically see the electricity between the two other people in the plane. He thought they would make a cute couple but it wasn't his place to tell either of them that. He liked Brennan. Didn't know a lot about him but Jesse had always been prepared to give people the benefit of the doubt, atleast until they screwed him over. He liked to give people the opportunity to prove that they were okay whereas Shalimar tended to take the more cynical route.   
  
Jesse turned back to look out of the front window of the Helix. It had been a long time since he had gone out with anyone. He had never been that confident around women, around people in general. He had always waited for someone else to make the first move. Shalimar didn't have that problem. She didn't have the kind of inhibitions Jesse had. They balanced each other out.   
  
***  
  
Emma opened the door of her apartment and poked her head around the corner. She looked to the left and the right trying to listen for any sign of people in the building. There was none. Her apartment building was a notoriously quiet one. There were plenty of old people living there and she had picked it for that reason. They were always prepared to talk to the nice polite girl who carried their shopping up the stairs when the elevator had broken down and they always knew everyone that was coming and going. If any new people moved in Emma was among the first to know, and just by starting a conversation with one of her elderly neighbours she could find out their names, ages, likes, dislikes and entire histories.   
  
She walked down the hallway the trainers she had replaced her boots with making sporadic squeaks on the polished wooden floor. She crept along the corridor hoping that none of her incredibly nosy neighbours decided to come out of their apartments at that moment. She reached the end of the hallway and looked out of the frosty window at the world, raw in all its cold glory. The occasional car passed along the road, the noise of their engines getting gradually louder and then just as gradually quieter again.   
  
She walked to the stairwell and looked over the edge of the balustrade. She drew back quickly. She knew it had all been too good to be true. Five guys in suits were making their silent way up the stairs towards her. She had nowhere to run to. She could make her way to the fire escape cautiously and quietly but chances were they would hear her and then she'd never get out of the building. Or she could make a run for it and hope they didn't catch up to her. Or she could hide somewhere and hope that they didn't notice her at all. All of her options rested so heavily on what ifs and she was in a pessimistic mood and was pretty sure that none of them would work.   
  
She looked across to the stairwell as she heard the click of a door being opened. She looked down and saw Mrs Carmichael, an elderly woman who was still as sprightly as she had been when she was seventeen. She was carrying two huge garbage bags, presumably taking them down to the bins on the ground floor. Emma looked at the men in suits and realised that she had just been given a way out. She looked on as Mrs Carmichael, always determined walked down the stairs towards the men. They all drew to the side of the stairs to make way for her but the garbage bags were too big and Emma watched on as they turned and made their way down the steps, defeat evident on their faces.   
  
She walked back along the corridor, not worrying about being quiet, a small smile forming itself on her mouth. She moved quickly and reached the door that led to the fire escape and pulled it open. She walked out onto the metal and looked down. She drew her breath in quickly as she realised how much she had underestimated how much they wanted her. She looked down at the four cars that were parked on the street below and then her eyes moved to the six men making their way up the stairs towards her. She turned and fled up the stairs towards the roof. She knew she was simply avoiding the inevitable but she wanted to give herself more time. Her powers were useless as they only ever worked when she didn't want them to. It was almost laughable to her that whoever it was that was chasing her would send eleven men after her. What was she gonna do, take them all down in a flurry of new mutancy. She reached the roof and looked through the steam created by the air vents to try and find a place she could hide out for a little bit, even though she knew it wouldn't do any good. She figured it was human nature, running. It was like in horror movies. It was inevitable that when the bad guy started chasing you you were probably going to die. But nobody ever gave up, nobody ever stopped running because there was always that little spark of hope that everything would be okay, that a knight in shining armour would turn up and save you, whilst kicking the ass of the bad guy. She ran to the other side of the roof, hoping that she could hide behind all the steam, knowing that they would find her regardless.   
  
She saw the figures moving through the mist and held her breath, watching as it formed rapidly vanishing clouds in front of her face.   
  
'Miss DeLauro,' came a voice from the group of men in front of her. 'We only want to talk, there is no need to panic.'  
  
She glared as the owner of the voice stepped forward. He was tall and broad shouldered and definitely looked like he meant business.   
  
'And what if I don't want to talk?' she replied, wondering as she would in retrospect how she found her voice through so much fear.  
  
'Then don't talk,' he replied. 'But you're coming with us anyway.'  
  
He stepped forward and Emma moved back towards the rail that separated her from the fall to the ground below. 


	7. chapter 7

I just finished the story but I'm gonna upload over the next couple of days...just to keep you guys waiting. Cruel I know but if you don't bother to review than I'll have to take drastic action and click the delete button on my computer and then you'll never find out the ending...mwahaha!  
  
Okay so I'd never actually do that. I put a hell of a lot of work into this story. But I'm serious about the whole review thing...please do.  
  
***  
  
'So what do we do when we find Emma?' Brennan asked from the back of the Helix. Shalimar turned to look at him.  
  
'If she's by herself we pick her up and bring her back to Sanctuary or one of the safehouses.'  
  
'And if she's not by herself?'  
  
Shalimar and Jesse looked at each other. Shalimar wasn't happy about throwing Brennan in at the deep end. She hadn't seen him do anything with or without his new mutant powers that could be termed as fighting and she wasn't sure how he was going to deal with any of it. She hoped he would do okay, because if he didn't, she probably wouldn't see him again. He'd either be placed in the underground to lead his life as he wished and hopefully dodge the GSA, or he'd be dead. She didn't want either of those for him and she had a feeling that he didn't too.   
  
***  
  
Emma's hand shook as she placed it on the railing. She knew she couldn't go anywhere, she was trapped and she was certainly not risking her life by jumping over the edge, but she needed support from something. She looked into the mans eyes and saw only his mission. He was so focused on catching her and she could tell that he wasn't even thinking about anything after that. His mission was to capture her and he couldn't see past it. She debated trying to harness her abilities but gave that idea up almost as soon as she had thought of it. There was no point, it wouldn't work.   
  
She felt the wind whip itself up and it tugged at errant strands of brunette hair. She saw the men in front of her raise their heads to look at the sky above them and wondered what they were looking for. Her eyes widened as she saw a figure fall from out of nowhere onto the roof in front of her, in between her and the men. Emma looked up and suddenly, out of the blue appeared a plane, one she was certain hadn't been there a second before.   
  
'This does not concern you,' said the man.  
  
'Who are you?' Shalimar asked, hoping to buy herself some time. She knew she could take all of the people on the rooftop regardless of whether or not they had mutant abilities but she'd rather not have to.   
  
'Agent Thorne. And you are?' he bit back.  
  
'I asked the question because I didn't have any idea; that makes me curious. You asked even though you already knew; that makes you stupid.'  
  
Emma smiled a little at the comeback. She was fully in favour of whoever the blonde was, as she seemed to be the one attempting to save Emma's life and that made her not only brave and very cool but incredibly funny as well.   
  
Thorne's face transformed and within seconds he was charging at Shalimar. She jumped over his head and landed behind him. The rest of the agents took this as a sign to start the attack and they all moved forward. Shalimar placed her foot onto the chest of one and used it as a jumping off point. She flipped and turned so she could kick the guy in the head with the heel of her foot. She landed facing away from the group and quickly turned, just in time to force the palm of her hand into the nose of an agent. He yelled as he stepped backwards. She kicked the third agent in his gut and he doubled over at which point she lifted up her leg and slammed it into the back of his head. He fell to the floor but Shalimar had no opportunity to rest. She rolled forward past the blow of one of the agents and out to the edge of the group. She didn't want to be in the centre of the action, she liked being able to see everything that was going on. She dropped to the floor and swept an agents legs from beneath his body. He hit the ground and she moved on to her next opponent.   
  
Emma watched on as the blonde woman took down every person in the group. She gradually worked her way through all of them and Emma was seriously impressed; some of the men were a foot bigger than her and a heck of a lot heavier.   
  
She looked down at the hand which had grabbed hold of her arm. Her eyes moved up to look at Thorne's face, she saw the anger in his eyes and she knew that while the anger had been caused by the blonde she was gonna be the one it was directed at. His hand increased its hold and she let out a yelp of pain.   
  
***  
  
Brennan looked out of the door of the ship. He watched as Shalimar fought her way through the group of Agents. He had never seen anyone move so fast and with so much force. But she looked graceful too, something he didn't think was possible.   
  
'I'm gonna lower the ship so you can jump out,' called Jesse from the pilots seat.   
  
Brennan looked over at him with wide eyes. 'You're gonna lower this so I can what?'  
  
'So you can jump out,' said Jesse. He hadn't figured Brennan for a guy who would get scared but looking at the whole situation through his eyes Jesse realised quite how worrying it was. He had grown used to the battles with the GSA. But no matter how much experience Brennan had with his powers and kicking ass in general he had never dealt with them before.   
  
'You don't have to go if you don't want to.'  
  
Hearing silence from the back of the Helix, Jesse turned. A smile appeared on his face as he saw that Brennan had disappeared.   
  
***  
  
Brennan's feet slammed into the ground and he grimaced as he felt the force burning his legs. He stood up straight just in time for the fist of one of the agents to smash straight into his jawbone. He reeled from the attack but was soon kicking the guy down onto the floor. He caught his breath and felt the adrenaline pumping through every part of his body. He looked over at Shalimar and saw her kicking ass like a pro. He turned his head to look in the other direction and saw the man who had introduced himself as Thorne holding onto Emma's arm like a dog with a bone. She was struggling but he was not letting go for anything.  
  
Brennan elbowed an agent in the face as he walked towards the pair. He saw Thorne's head turn to look at him and narrowed his eyes. Brennan wasn't intimidated by many things in life. He certainly wasn't gonna back away from this fight.   
  
'You wanna let her go or am I gonna have to make you?'  
  
Emma looked towards him and Brennan could finally see the terror in her eyes. He looked into the blue orbs trying to send reassuring thoughts with just one look.   
  
Thorne raised his eyebrows.  
  
'Well, if that's the way you want it?' Brennan answered. He lifted his hands and drew them across one other. He watched as the sparks formed themselves and flickered gently from hand to hand. He circled his hands around one another forcing the electrical pulses to become larger and more aggressive.   
  
Suddenly he felt a huge impact on the back of his head. Unprepared for the blow he fell to his knees. He could feel the wet ground of the roof against his fingertips and he could feel the cold seeping through his jeans. He looked up at Thorne and could see the man smiling. Brennan glared back and pushed himself off the floor. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned quickly, ready to punch whoever it was. He looked straight into the eyes of Shalimar.   
  
'He's mine,' she said quietly.   
  
Brennan smiled in reply and they swiftly swapped places so that Brennan had three more agents to take down and Shalimar had Thorne to take care of. 


	8. chapter 8

Only one more chapter after this one and then the story is over, finito, finished...whatever. Please review...thank you.  
  
***  
  
Emma watched as events unfolded in front of her. She had never been involved in a fight before. Even in high school she had stayed away from aspects that might force her into a situation she couldn't get out of. She had never gathered around in a big circle with all the other students to see two macho guys fighting it out in the school yard. Everybody had assumed that she was being mature and sensible but she was just plain scared. At moments of heightened emotional stress the powers of mutants tended to make themselves known and Emma had been terrified of people finding out what she was. She guessed that that was no longer a problem.   
  
Thorne let go of her arm and it immediately dropped to her side. She stepped away, still holding onto the railing with her other hand. She was not letting go with Thorne still hanging around ready to cart her off.  
  
Shalimar watched as Emma moved away. She didn't intend to completely kick Thorne's ass, she just wanted to give Emma, Brennan and herself a chance to get back into the Helix so they could get out of there. She dodged to avoid one of Thorne's fists. But if he really wanted to fight her then who was she to deny him that particular pleasure.   
  
She kicked out at his side but he blocked so she dropped to the floor and swept her leg round. Thorne jumped out of the way and threw a well aimed punch at Shalimar's head. She staggered backwards, a red mark forming itself on her temple. She looked up just in time to be thrown across the rooftop to land next to the fire escape stairs.   
  
She stared at Thorne in suprise before jumping up and preparing herself for round 2.   
  
'Adam,' she called into her comlink.  
  
'Yeah?'  
  
'Check out a guy called Thorne. He will be on the new mutant database.'  
  
She hadn't expected Thorne to be a mutant. She had figured him for a regular agent. She smiled as she realised how much more fun the whole situation had just gotten.   
  
***  
  
Brennan hauled the last agent over his shoulder and slammed him onto the ground where he remained. Brennan looked up to see Shalimar standing across the rooftop from Thorne, looking mightily pissed off. Her eyes were glowing and he could hear a low growl emitting from her lips. Thorne had a smug look on his face that Brennan hoped Shalimar would wipe off.   
  
He turned his head quickly to take in Emma who had managed to get a sufficient distance from Thorne so that she was no longer in his line of sight. Brennan crept over to her and guided her to Shalimar's side of the roof without attracting attention from the Agent.   
  
Much as Shalimar was enjoying the standoff she was getting increasingly bored with waiting for someone to make the first move. She could sense Brennan and Emma standing close by, she wasn't sure where and couldn't risk turning her head. It would give away their position and would also give Thorne a chance to kick her ass without even needing to touch her. She continued to stare into his cold, hard eyes as her mind formulated a plan.   
  
'So are we just gonna stand here all night or are you gonna try and take me down? Cos, you know, that was so successful the first time round,' she said as she walked across the rooftop slowly, drawing attention away from the fire escape stairs down to the ground below where, as planned between her and Jesse in the flight over, the Helix would be waiting for all of its passengers.   
  
Brennan saw her move and decided that if he and Emma were going to get off the roof anytime soon the opportune moment was probably now. He took Emma's small hand in his and walked quietly with her, both of them keeping as low to the ground as they could. They reached the stairs without any trouble but as Emma took her first step onto the metal it creaked. The noise rang out in the cold night air and Throne turned his head sharply to take in the new positions of everyone.   
  
'Run!' Shalimar cried and Brennan gave Emma a small push to get her started. Thorne raised his right arm and readied himself to use his powers but Brennan was quicker. His left arm shot out and with it a bolt of shimmering blue light. It hit Thorne square in the chest and he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a dull thump.   
  
Brennan looked across at Shalimar and saw her start strolling towards him at an easy pace like this was just another day in her life.   
  
'Now, I'm impressed,' she said quietly. Brennan grinned with pride before stepping aside to let her go down the stairs first.   
  
'I gotta go the quicker way,' she said apologetically. 'If I don't get down there before Emma she'll walk smack bang into the Helix in stealth mode. Not the most pleasant way to introduce her to Jesse.'  
  
'What's the quicker way?'  
  
Shalimar walked over to the edge of the building and smirked at Brennan before vaulting over the edge and dropping to the floor below.   
  
***  
  
Emma looked around her. The room she was in looked like a lounge from the future. She had been taken to one of the new mutant safehouses and she was currently being told about the benefits of the underground. But she wasn't really paying any attention to what was being said. Everything was so overwhelming. She had known of course that there were others like her in the world, she had known of the existence of new mutants but she could never have anticipated the existence of a whole underground movement of them.   
  
Shalimar looked at Emma. She looked pale and anxious but she seemed a lot more secure than she had initially been. Shalimar could tell she wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to Jesse. She wasn't suprised. Shalimar remembered when Adam had brought her back to Sanctuary for the first time. She had been astounded by everything she saw around her. Shalimar's thoughts, however were primarily with Brennan. The team were going to place Emma in the underground and it brought into light the issue of where Brennan was going to go. Shalimar's eyes strayed towards him and she met his gaze. Their eyes locked and no matter how hard she tried Shalimar couldn't seem to drag her eyes away from his. Maybe it had been the whole him-looking-out-for-her-on-a-roof-whilst-they-kicked-the-asses-of-a-couple-of-bad-guys thing, maybe it was because he had saved her life but she suddenly didn't want him to leave, she didn't want to be left behind as he went off to live his own life. She wanted him to stay.   
  
Emma noticed the look between the blonde and the brunette. She felt the butterflies in her stomach and a smile lit up her face. They weren't her butterflies, they belonged to the two people sitting not far from her. She could feel all the tension and chemistry that came with the butterflies. She lowered her eyes, feeling like she was violating their right to privacy. She turned her head back to Jesse and saw him watching her closely. He smiled brightly at her and the butterflies were back. And this time they belonged very exclusively to her.   
  
***  
  
'There they go,' said Jesse quietly.   
  
'Yeah,' replied Shalimar. She looked up at Jesse and leant her body into his. She felt tired and alone, two things that even Jesse couldn't remedy.   
  
They both turned as the door clicked closed behind Adam. He looked down at the two only members of Mutant X.   
  
'Brennan and Emma have gone?' he asked, knowing the answer already.   
  
'Alison just picked them up in the car. We gave them their new details and the phone number to Sanctuary just in case.'  
  
Adam nodded. He was sad to see them both leave but he didn't want to force them into staying just because they felt they had a debt to repay. The team had just saved both of them from the clutches of the GSA and he thought that they would both feel obligated to join the team. He didn't want reluctant heroes no matter how skilled they were.   
  
'You two coming home?' he asked as he walked out of the door. They looked at each and then followed him up the stairs. 


	9. chapter 9

This is the last chapter of this story. A huge thank you to everybody who reviewed, I was glad to hear that you all seemed to like it.   
  
I know this isn't a very big chapter but I hope you all enjoy it regardless. Please review...it will make me uber happy.   
  
***  
  
'You want some coffee?' Shalimar asked brightly as Jesse in all his early morning disheveled glory walked into the lab.   
  
'You're a bitch, you know that?'  
  
She smiled politely which only served to infuriate him even more. He slouched onto one of the chairs.   
  
'I have no idea why you're the one whose so tired. Who was up all yesterday, running and kicking ass? And who got to sit around the whole time doing next to nothing?'  
  
'Oh yeah, like all the fighting's such a trial for you,' he replied with a smirk.  
  
'You want that coffee or what?'  
  
'Yes, please.'  
  
She walked through to the kitchen and turned the machine on. She felt completely rested from the day before but she had no idea how long that could last. The GSA would still be after them, her and Jesse would still have to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. In a couple of weeks she knew she would be completely exhausted. She knew why Adam hadn't asked Emma and Brennan to stay on but there were a few reasons why she wished he had.   
  
'Shalimar,' Jesse's voice called from the other room. She jogged through to the lab and looked at him expectantly.   
  
'Brennan and Emma just called the secure line. They sounded like they were in trouble.'  
  
'Where are they?'   
  
'When they called they were in a bar in the middle of town called Oxygen. They sounded like they might have to make a move pretty soon though.'  
  
'Then we'd better get going,' Shalimar retorted as she ran out of the lab to get dressed.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar ran round the back of the bar, through the rubbish of empty beer bottles and flyers advertising a gig that littered the ground. She eventually located the back entrance to the building and pushed against it with her shoulder. It was locked and she stepped back a small way before kicking at it with her left leg. The door gave way and she rushed forward to stop it from slamming against the wall. Jesse had gone round the front just in case there were any signs of the GSA.   
  
Shalimar walked into the main room of the bar and looked around her. Her eyes alighted on Brennan and Emma sitting at the bar. She frowned as she took in the glasses of water that were sitting in front of both of them. The looked completely at ease and Shalimar's mouth widened as she realised that both her and Jesse had been duped.   
  
'Hey,' Brennan said, as he smiled at the look on her face.  
  
  
  
'Hey,' she replied suspiciously.  
  
Emma stood up and tried to subtly move away from the pair. She had the distinct feeling that whichever way the situation was going to go she didn't want to be there.  
  
'You mad at me?' Brennan asked once Emma had left.  
  
Shalimar grinned and Brennan knew the answer. She walked towards him and sat down on Emma's vacant stool.  
  
'I'm not mad,' she said. 'I just...'  
  
'What?' Brennan asked as Shalimar paused.  
  
'Ow,' he replied moments later as Shalimar's hand made contact with his head.  
  
'Don't ever make me worry like that.'  
  
'So why did you guys call us?' Jesse asked as he walked into the room. He had encountered Emma at the front door and she had told him where Brennan and Shalimar were. But then Emma had smiled and he had completely forgotten what his own name was let alone what she had just said.   
  
'We heard that you and your team needed a couple of extra people to help out,' said Emma.  
  
'You're being serious?' Jesse asked.  
  
'Why not?' she replied.  
  
'You realize that last night wasn't just a one off, right?' Shalimar asked. She didn't want to scare the pair of them but they had to know what they were going up against, they had to know what they were agreeing to.  
  
'Yeah,' Emma replied. She was perfectly serious about joining Mutant X. The night before had been hard and she had been scared but she didn't want to be a victim, she didn't want to be the person who needed the knight in shining armour anymore.   
  
'Well, then I guess you had better follow me. We'll leave it to Adam to thoroughly confuse and bore you by explaining how Mutant X works,' Jesse said.  
  
Shalimar and Brennan watched as Jesse led Emma out of the room before turning to each other.   
  
'You're sure about this?' she asked quietly.  
  
'I trust you.'  
  
Shalimar smiled realizing how much it took for Brennan to admit to something like that. She knew he meant it.   
  
They both stood up and began to walk out of the bar.   
  
'You know how after the whole private plane, home in a big rock thing you thought your life couldn't get any stranger?' she asked.   
  
'Yeah,' Brennan replied, wondering what was coming next.  
  
'Last week me and Jesse had to take out a guy who was half man half lizard and had the scales and long tongue to prove it.'  
  
He stared at her with raised eyebrows.  
  
  
  
'Welcome to my world.' 


End file.
